The Mystery Blogger Award #3

For the third time this year, I’ve been nominated for The Mystery Blogger Award. I must be a veeeery mysterious person 😀

This nomination came from Ignited Moth, a lovely blogger whom I’ve been following for over a year now. She writes about whatever the hell she wants, but usually alights on graphic novels, comics, various other books, movies, her own gorgeous artwork, and the book club she’s in with her notorious partner in crime and best friend Cupcakes and Machetes. IM nominated me a while ago, but I’m abysmal at accomplishing anything quickly (there’s actually an older nomination sitting in my notes, but it requires more thought than this, and I’m too tired and preoccupied to work on that).

THE RULES:

Display the award logo on your blog.

List the rules.

Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.

Tell your readers three things about yourself.

Answer five questions from the nominator.

Nominate from 10 to 20 bloggers.

Notify the bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, including one weird or funny question.

Share the link to your best post.

What is the Mystery Blogger Award?

“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.

Three Things About Me:

I took piano lessons from age five until age fourteen, but I’m still terrible at reading music. I would memorize the songs with my “fingers,” and to this day I can still play Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” (or at least the beginning part of it, though it might take me a few minutes to remember where to go). I use this same method with singing. I’ll just learn the melody and the words. I have this weird “auditory memory,” (as I call it) where songs not only become earworms, but I’ll remember things I haven’t heard in decades. They will literally get stuck in my head. Not just music either, but anything that has a cadence. This is probably one of the reasons why I’ll recall and recite random lines from movies and shows. What’s useful about this is singing in other languages like Latin or German is fairly easy, because once I know the words and melody, the song will be etched in my mind. It’s even better if initially have the words to read while listening to/singing it the first few times, since subsequently I’ll “see” the words as I’m singing without them. My brain is very weird.

I don’t know if I’m a gaming writer or a writing gamer. I’ve been writing since I was five or six, but I’ve been gaming since I was around three, and all of the major stories I’ve written even from the beginning were inspired by video games.

I’ve considered changing my online name to “The Internet Philosopher,” just because I want to be even more presumption. Alternatively, I’ve considered adding this to my current title so I’d be “The Shameful Narcissist, FFVII fangirl, Sephiroth devotee, lover of cats and other beasties, SJW, and internet philosopher.” If Daenerys can have a plethora of titles, why can’t I?

Ignited Moth’s Questions:

Do you believe in any superstitions? Or practice any even though you think it’s silly? – I “kiss” the windshield guard (that thingy that sometimes contains a mirror in the car. I can’t remember its official name) every time I make it through a yellow light, as in kissing my palm and pressing it up against. Before I drove, I watched my cousin do it and just picked it up. I never thought anything of it until my stepmom remarked on it, while she was driving, because I do it even if I’m a passenger.. It is a bit silly, but it’s just second nature to me now. It really goes to show how we just do things by rote. This particular practice isn’t dangerous, as in it’s not harming anyone, but it makes me remember to always question things we do based on tradition.

What type of food did you hate as a kid but love now? – I couldn’t stand peanut butter as a kid, but I enjoy it now. I won’t say love, but I wouldn’t turn down a spoonful if I’m hungry, especially at the end of the day when it’s too late to make anything else. Also mustard. I used to hate it in favor of mayo, but now I like it especially honey mustard, though I still won’t eat it on a pretzel lol. I used to be allergic to strawberries as a kid, too, but I’m not anymore. I didn’t particularly hate them, but if I ate any, I’d break out in hives. My skin is super sensitive. Like “I’m allergic to the sun and will break out in hives” super sensitive. Yet more reasons for me to hate the yellow ball of death.

Can you name a person that you’ve never met but that has inspired you in some way? – Sir Patrick Stewart! He is a legitimate Sir not just in name. I’ve loved him since TNG, but the actor himself is just an amazing person. He’s a major player in Amnesty International where, among other things, he does tremendous work for female victims of domestic violence, and this was most likely influenced by growing up in a situation where his mother bore the brunt of that and was victim blamed for it. He also recognizes that PTSD is a serious disorder that was brushed off when he was younger. It was a huge contributing factor for why his father was abusive, though Sir Patrick never even implies that it is an excuse. He’s also an animal lover and is just very aware of the issues facing the world today. Like he’s a 70-something, white, Englishman and he’s more “woke” than some people half his age.

Then Captain Picard is the quintessential father figure, which is ironic considering he neither has children nor (as he erroneously claims) is very good with them (seriously, watch any episode where Picard has to deal with kids. He’s brilliant at it). I say more about my favorite captain and heroic character here. I have a coffee mug with his face on it. Oh, and he’s best friends with Sir Ian McKellen.

Their bromance is epic.

What was the last movie you watched? – In the theater? Wonder Woman, and I really enjoyed it for what it was, which doesn’t mean I can’t critique certain aspects 🙂

What is your favorite work(s) of fiction to geek out over? (We’re talking books, TV & film, comics, video games etc.) – Final Fantasy VII, but you guys know this already :p

My Questions for the Nominees:

Do you prefer physical copies or eBooks? In the same vein, do you prefer digital copies or physical for video games?

What’s your favorite nail polish color (yes guys can answer, too!)?

Philosophical question: Do you think humans are inherently good or are we amoral (lacking morals as in neutral, as opposed to immoral, which is against “common” morals) only exhibiting them because it’s the cost of living in a culture/society and they become so ingrained that we believe them to be inherent?

Silver or gold?

As always, nomination is not a binding contract and answering any questions is totally optional (I know that philosophical one is more akin to an essay lol, but I wanted to be evil…which may be an answer in and of itself hmmm), and if you weren’t nominated and would like to answer any or all, please feel free!

Strawberries are funny in that they’re only really good for a very short time: late April/early May to around mid, sometimes late, June. You have to catch them then otherwise they’re kind of sour and you need to add sugar :p

I defy all odds! I didn’t like the texture of it, probably because it reminded me of chewing gum, which my brother and cousin put in my food…chewed, so I had so very bad reactions to that afterwards *yuck* Now I like PB, but I’m still not a fan of gum.

I couldn’t agree more. There are way too many actors that are douchebags with a capital D, but my English favorite all seem to be real sirs. Tom Hiddleston is actually my favorite actor, but I loved Sir Patrick for longer ♥

Thank you for the nomination! I like the plethora of titles! You can be blogging royalty then. I didn’t know all that about sir Patrick Stewart, I knew that he did a lot for charity but not the reasons why or the extent of it.
I only ever used to eat smooth peanut butter and hated anything with bits in it but now I love crunchy peanut butter, I’m a big peanut butter fan, I have chocolate and peanut butter Reese’s spread which I save as a treat and I love it

Sir Patrick is just an amazing human. I remember watching a video of him at a convention where he was talking about it and taking questions. A young woman stood up and asked him what he was most proud of after preempting it by telling a bit of her own domestic violence story, and he said that the Amnesty International and anti-domestic violence work was what he was most proud of, and he talked about his childhood. It doesn’t help that I could listen to him speak all day hehe.

I used to dislike it utterly, then I only liked smooth, but not I like crunchy PB, but I don’t really like peanut butter cookies, because the PB usually tastes a bit chalky.

“The yellow ball of death” haha. Bet you’re looking forward to the solar eclipse even if it’s only a couple minutes.

Weirdly, the only piano song I remember is a little bit of “Fur Elise.” 🙂 I never had the music to read or any lessons, I just heard it and learned how to play part of it. Lucky us with our auditory super powers.

August 21st. Where I live, we are on the edge of the path of totality, where you can see a total solar eclipse, vs. a partial one anywhere outside the path. Hotels in the area have been booked months in advance by some very excited people. 🙂

I’m sure there will be plenty of pics of it on the internet. As my dad says, “What’s the big deal? The moon is going to cover the sun for a couple minutes.” My guy and his son are space nerds so I’ll be going with them a little ways out to the country to get a better view.

It impresses me that nowadays we’re totally chill about it, but a few hundred or probably more thousand years ago, people thought the world was ending lol. I’m sure I’ll be able to find plenty of pictures and videos on the internet about it, but it would be fun to be in the path of totality (if that’s the right term for it hehe).

I wasn’t quite THAT excited, but I was shocked that more people outside weren’t as impressed. It was pretty amazing!

Haha, yes! The world being swallowed up in darkness in the middle of the day would promote fear I’m sure. We got our super cool solar viewing glasses and I’m taking off work. We’ll take a picnic and make a little adventure out of it. I’ll keep waiting for a glorious double rainbow. ❤

Congratulations on the award! For the record, I think you could totally call yourself the Internet Philosopher and not be presumptuous at all!
…said the blogger who named herself after the Greek goddess of wisdom. Maybe I’m not the one to ask… haha I’m kidding, of course.

I love Sir Patrick Stewart! And, slightly unrelated, I now have the song “Silver and Gold” running through my head and I haven’t heard that song in *years and years.* So that’s fun and unexpected haha

Congrats on your blogging award! Your answers were fun to read! 🙂 I don’t have very good auditory memory like you do, but I tend to remember what I read and even where it was located on the page… I also remember random things like what song was playing while my husband and I were sitting in the parking lot at Target ten years ago and what space we were parked in… yeah, my brain does its own thing lol!

That’s a pretty damn amazing ability! I’m terrible at source information lol. That would be an amazing skill because if I don’t write down the page number of a quote, I always misremember where it is. If I’m doing something particularly memorable, I’ll recall songs or things like that, but I’m lucky if I remember where I last put my shoes :p